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Lotus Bancorp shareholders keep members of board despite lawsuit

A shareholder revolt fizzled out Thursday at the annual meeting of Novi-based Lotus Bancorp Inc.

Emails had been circulating, urging shareholders to vote against the re-election of Lotus Bank President Neal Searle and former Chairman Jitendra Patel to the board.

About 57 percent of shares were voted, and of that, only 9.7 percent voted against their re-election, according to one of the dissident shareholders who had been urging a "no" vote, who asked not to be named.

The action grew out of an ongoing lawsuit in Oakland County Circuit Court that alleges that racist attitudes toward Asian Indians by Searle and bank CFO Richard Bauer resulted in two customers of the bank being treated unfairly.

At the heart of the case are emails sent by Bauer and Searle in 2010. In one, Bauer refers to bank board members as "chimps," and in another, he said: "I will leave you with this sage advice from General Custer and most Pakistanis: The only good Indian is a dead Indian."

The bank was founded in 2007 to serve the needs of the local Asian Indian business community. Most of those who invested in the bank were of Indian descent and most of its board members are Indian.

Patel was targeted by dissident shareholders because he declined to fire the two when he was chairman of the board and defended them in an article in Crain's.